


Dances in the Night

by Briarfox13



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, F/M, I'm Sorry, Kaidan being cute, Lots of Angst, Love, Northern Lights, Post Game, Post-Mass Effect 3, actually i'm not, no I mean it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 21:07:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17433518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briarfox13/pseuds/Briarfox13
Summary: Merry Christmas Effe!! <3Art by me!!





	Dances in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heffalumps](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heffalumps/gifts).



> Merry Christmas Effe!! <3
> 
> Art by me!!

                                                                         

 

The snow had fallen thick that morning, leaving a delicate white blanket across the landscape. Even the small wood cabin they had been sharing was covered in snow. The entire scene looked like it was from one of those twee postcards sent when on holiday.

Kaidan snorted gently to himself as he locked the door, no one was going to get a postcard like that for them. He looked around for his partner, but she was nowhere to be seen, only a faint trail of disturbed snow leading up towards the mountains.

He shook his head, she was always wandering off ahead of him, desperate to get on with whatever task was in hand. Kaidan looked up at the darkening sky, the first stars of the night twinkled above them.

Here the light pollution was low, allowing the mighty heavens to shine in all their glory. It would be a good night tonight.

Pulling up his hood, Kaidan trudged forwards following the path that his love had left. In the growing dark, it was too hard to see her footprints. He looked around, worry creeping into his handsome features. Surely, she couldn’t have gone too far already?

He had lost her twice. He would certainly not lose her again.

“Wait for me!!” he called, voice muffled under several layers of scarves and hoods; this year was colder than before. But there was no answer - only the rustling of the trees and the squeaking of night time creatures.

The Major started to panic, twisting around, squinting for Morgan’s figure in the gloom.  
Suddenly up ahead a second figure emerged from the darkness ominously, dark against the trees that surrounded them.

“Hurry or we’ll miss it” Morgan Shepard spoke quietly. She could be blunt at times but Kaidan knew behind that harsh exterior lay someone who cared about the world around her. She just had a different way of showing it.

Many had called her a machine, an AI in human skin. But not him, he saw the real Morgan all bruised, battered and tired.

Kaidan jumped a little and rubbed the nape of his neck,an awkward grin on his face.  
“It’s alright Morgan, there’s time,” he replied jovially in an attempt to hide his panic. But the N7 wasn’t fooled, she never was.

Kaidan Alenko, the second Human Spectre had always felt proud that he was among the few privileged to call her by her first name. The rest were relegated to calling her by her surname, or they’d be looking down the barrel of her pistol.

Morgan Shepard, hero of the Citadel, brooked no nonsense from anyone, whether they be cadets or the Council themselves. She crushed anyone who got in her way with brutal efficiency.  
  
But there was more to her than that. There was a kindness and fragility to her that very few saw. Kaidan was one of the lucky ones. They had spent countless hours together on the battlefield and in bed. That was where he’d met the real Morgan, the Morgan he had hopelessly fallen in love with.

She was the kind of woman who wanted to do good but didn’t quite know how to. That was what had drawn him first to her. That logical tendency towards violence which hid something the Commander had buried deep inside.

Morgan tapped her foot impatiently, arms crossed formidably in her thick winter coat. In the dark, she almost looked transparent. The bark of pine trees almost visible, as though she were a ghost.

Kaidan shook his head and trudged up the hill towards her, thrusting his hands in his pockets. She scowled at him for taking his sweet time tapping her foot a second time, the snow crunching beneath her feet.

“Move it Major,” she barked, a sly smile crossing her features. Morgan was stunning when she smiled.

Kaidan grinned stupidly back, knowing full well he must have looked like a fool. But then again, he was a fool in love.

Sidling up to her, the two of them stared at the other for a split second. Morgan rolled her eyes and gave the soldier a peck on his cheek before moving on.

“Let’s go.”

Together they walked up the hill in comfortable silence, winding their way round snow-laden trees, each step taking them higher and higher. The dark pine forest slowly faded away to reveal rocky pathways entrenched in snow and scrubby bushes clinging on for dear life.

Hours passed comfortably as they climbed ever upwards. It wasn’t the first time they had done things in this silence. Morgan valued the silence; the Reaper war had been an unending tirade of voices, memories and white noise.

Their destination can’t have been a few more steps away when he felt Morgan’s hand grab the scruff of his collar and drag him forwards into a clearing far above the forests and frozen lakes.

“There!! Look!” She pointed towards the sky, an excited gleam on her face.

Kaidan looked up at the sky and gasped.

A thousand colours danced across it, each swirling around each other in some complicated dance: they were beautiful, breath-taking even... just like she was. Each curtain was as unique and as special as the last: greens and blues, pinks and purples. All lighting up the vista before them: trees and the frozen lake below glowing gently.

Above them every hue under the sun danced by illuminating the stars as they glittered and glinted in the night sky.

Entranced by the dance above, Morgan let her hand slip from Kaidan’s collar to find his hand: it tingled oddly in his touch as though she wasn’t quite there. He gripped it gently, rubbing a thumb over her knuckles with practised ease.

Together for what seemed an eternity, they stood there watching the dances in the night. Colours entwined together just as they were, hand in hand.

He turned to face Morgan Shepard, the woman he had fallen in love with. It had been so unexpected: Morgan was fierce and brutal in her pursuit of Saren, the Collectors, then the Reapers. But they had lived, recovered…they had survived. And now they could spend the rest of their lives together with nights like this.

This was he had dreamed of for what seemed forever. And it was coming true, they had exciting prospects ahead: a house, jobs, maybe even a family of their own.

Kaidan smiled a secret smile only the stars could see. Morgan looked beautiful with her soft blonde hair wrapped up in that easily recognisable bun, lips quirked up to form the gentlest of smiles.

Morgan rarely smiled, but when she did the world lit up as though she was the sun. It was one of the many reasons why he had fallen in love with her all those years ago; she was the fire that set the galaxy ablaze during the war. She was the force of nature that had torn the sky down and brought the Reapers to their knees.

The woman turned her head from the Northern Lights and looked tenderly into her love’s eyes and spoke gently cupping the man’s face.

“It’s time Kaidan.”

“Time? Time for what Morgan?” Fear welled up inside him. What could she possibly mean? Was she going to leave him? She couldn’t leave, not after that promise she had made many moons ago before they had landed on Earth for the final battle.

The fear began to grow further, infecting his bones, his mind until it blackened his soul.

“Time to let me go,” Shepard said simply, squeezing his hand tightly.

Kaidan shook his head furiously, no. This couldn’t be happening, not now, not ever.

But the memories he had locked away tumbled forwards filling his mind. Saren, the Reapers, the way the Citadel exploded in a green light, his attempts to wrestle Joker as he steered them through the nearest relay and away from her.

It all came flooding back, and it broke him.

Shepard only smiled and pulled away, her fingertips disappearing into nothingness.

No, all of this had to be real. The cabin in the snow, the night by the fire, the walk to the mountain and lights in the sky. Morgan had been there, she had to be, right?

He hurriedly looked back to check she was still standing before him.

“No! Morgan don’t leave me!” He cried scrabbling towards the woman, but she continued to fade away before his eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes glinting in the half-light staring across the sea of snow that lay between them. He had always loved her eyes best. They had burnt into his soul and showed him what love could be.

But it was not to be.

And then she was gone, as though she had never been there.

“Please,” he whispered dropping to his knees, head falling to his chest, tears sparkling in his eyes. But there was no answer, not even a bird’s song.

But she was gone forever, ashes in the wind. They had not even found her body.

The great Commander Shepard was nothing more than just a memory now, to treasure forever.

High above him, the myriad curtains of light continued to dance their way through the night sky towards the dawn.


End file.
